Sunday, June 1, 2014

Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang

I could not go to the game last night. I didn’t even get to my radio until the bottom of the 7th inning where I learned that, contrary to my expectation, Alex Colome had done just fine before handing the game off to Merrill Kelly. The Bulls were ahead 3-0 and I figured that since Kelly was in things were OK.

More than OK. By the end of the inning the Bulls picked up 6 more runs on four singles, a double, a Jerry Sands home run, and an IronPig fielding error. Justin Christian homered for the 10th run of the game in the 8th inning.

Bulls pitchers got their 6th shutout of the season. Bulls hitters created the biggest win margin of the year. Gwinnett lost, opening up a 3½ game spread. The Bulls are now 11 games over .500, their best mark of the year. Things are right with the world.

Meanwhile, I have a question for those who listened/watched the game: Why was Vince Belnome playing left field? I’m guessing that it was Mikie Mahtook’s day off and that Charlie Montoyo wanted to keep Belnome's bat in the lineup instead of Price or Nix. But that didn’t work since he was the only Bull not to get on base last night.

About Alex Colome. I assume that readers of this blog know all about the drug suspension. If not, the Herald-Sunstory summarizes it. I’m not a very tolerant guy and I find it hard to forgive. Nevertheless, he obviously spent his time away from the game working on his craft, and that’s good for him and for the Bulls. He certainly performed far above my expectations last night.

Cole Figueroa started at 3B. Welcome back.

Outside the game —

The Rays lost to the Red Sox, again, last night. Their only run was a distinctly weird inside-the-park home run by Kevin Kiermaier. Kiermaier started in right field in the place of injured former Bull Wil Myer.

In that same game Ali Solis got his first major league start. While in his first AB in the 3rd a pitch went into the dirt, bounced off the catcher’s shin guard, and hit him in the nose. He was taken out of the game. Reports are that his nose is not broken.

I'm not sure the Rays have much flexibility to send folks down. The Bulls have plenty of pitchers on the 40-man, but only Belnome, Figueroa, and Lee available to try to make a difference. I don't track "options" but would guess that only a few (Guyer, maybe) don't have to go through waivers. Some bloggers think they might blow up the team with a big trade, which could lead to more turmoil. As it is, there's been something like 57 transactions already this year. Bulls record has a lot to do with Montoyo's managing, I'd think.

See that they made room by putting Beckham on the 60 day DL. Wonder if that's why they signed Nix? Congrats to Sands, of course. Batting 4th in order.http://rayscoloredglasses.com/2014/06/01/wil-myers-dl-jerry-sands-called-up-tampa-bay-rays/